Tagged: Space

Terry Welsh the developer of Retrobooster let me know about his upcoming survival space platform shooter game (which looks excellent even at this stage of development)

Trailer:

My name is Terry and I am making Retrobooster, an upcoming 2.5D survival shooter and cave-flyer. It was a hobby project for a long time, but my day job was holding me back. In July, I quit my job at NASA and became a full-time indie game developer.

Retrobooster lets you pilot a thrust ship across the galaxy, focusing on the thrill of flying just as much as blasting enemies. Some cave-flyers keep the flying slow or neuter the physics in some other way, but Retrobooster enhances its survival theme by keeping the flying fast and tense. This is accomplished with a combination of clever control laws and realistic physics. Retrobooster also sports colorful explosions and other effects produced by a custom particle engine. All of this produces an arcade experience with a balance of bullet hell mayhem, flying challenges, and delicious pyrotechnics.

The gameplay consists of skill-based flying and shooting, grabbing tokens to get power-ups and weapons, and figuring out how to get through each level. Beating a level can mean rescuing people, solving puzzles, or surviving speed-flying challenges. Replay value comes from multiple difficulty levels, the chance to play for high scores, and your constantly improving ship control skills.

Retrobooster is about two-thirds through development. The gameplay has matured enough that I am now releasing its first playable demo. I hope this will generate good feedback that will help make it a better game.

My background is in visual simulation and virtual reality, but games are a whole lot more fun to make. I have long been interested in artistic programming as you can see from all the OpenGL screensavers .

Retrobooster has been a pleasure to create, and I hope you try the demo.

Star Citizen is HUGE space game in developed with one of the best and detailed graphics we have ever seen to date. It’s being developed by Chris Roberts who brought us the legendary space games Wing Commander, Privateer and Freelance.

João Santos contacted Chris Roberts asking him about the possibility of a GNU/Linux version and he said that while a GNU/Linux version it’s high on their “wish list,” it will depend on community interest.Then João Santos asked him if a petition would help and he said it could help because : “it’d be good to know how many people really want a Linux version. I’m getting a LOT of requests for a Macintosh version, but not so much mention of Linux…”

So here is our chance to ask for a GNU/Linux version of this excellent to be, space game.

The developers are also raising funds to continue the development of the game (like a Kickstarter, but in their own website), the campaign ends in 30 days – but till the GNU/Linux client is not confirmed, I won’t propose to donate to this project.
This why we have this petition first.

“Hi, I’m Notch, and this is my new game. It’s going to be a space game, and it’s quite ambitious!
The game is still extremely early in development, but like we did with Minecraft, we expect to release it early and let the players help me shape the game as it grows.”

Backstory and Setting
In a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.
In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0×0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0×0001 0000 0000 0000 years.
It’s now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.

Game Features

The game is still very early in development, but here is a list of things we hope to include:

The Generator and the Computer
Each ship has a generator capable of producing a fixed wattage, and everything you connect to it drains wattage. A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfully cloak.
The computer in the game is a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games on while waiting for a large mining operation to finish.
Full specifications of the CPU will be released shortly, so the more programatically advanced of you can get a head start.

Starfarer is a single-player sandbox style space role-playing game with strategic elements developed by Fractal Softworks

The alpha includes 6 combat missions of varying difficulty and a tutorial.
The tutorial explains combat & piloting basics, but does not touch on the “warroom” (which is the tactical interface you use to to give orders to your fleet, toggled with the Tab key).
Warroom controls are roughly similar to RTS controls, but if they’re giving you trouble, your best bet might be the manual. We’ll be sure to include a warroom tutorial at some point, it’s just not in yet.

You can also do some modding, if you’re so inclined (custom missions).

Features

Single player, gritty, dystopian sci-fi setting

Classic top down gameplay style enhanced by modern technology

Unique character development system – advance your story, your way

Assemble a large, powerful fleet or a finely-tuned task force with hand-picked officers and crew